Active – No contract in place – Best way to approach is to have pre-approved loan or cash offer to get into contract with the seller and motivate lender(s) to accept your offer price.

Active-Pending-Short-Sale – Accepted contract “in escrow”; subject to the seller’s lender(s) approving contract price and terms. So, at this point the sellers lender has to approve the offer price. Depending on the lender(s) this can take 4-6 weeks or longer. If the lender(s) approve the price and terms then the contract contingencies (inspections, loan approval etc.) come into play and if not satisfied may terminate the contract. The contract must be terminated before a backup offer can be accepted.

Active-Pending-Loan – This is an example of a loan contingency that has not been released yet.

Active-Pending-Call – Accepted contract “in escrow”; subject to contingencies which have not been satisfied. The “Call” status sometimes indicates an anticipated problem with the escrow and is in place to advise interested buyers to call their agent to find out if the property may “fall out of escrow”.

Active-Pending-House – Sale is contingent upon sale of another property

You will see that most of the listings have a status of Active/Pending-Short Sale or Active/Pending-Call. With this status the offer may or may not close escrow. Backup offers may or may not be be encouraged. If you see an interesting property I can see if the seller will accept a backup offer